beyond the capitol
by raffinit
Summary: Joel and Tess try to get Ellie to the Fireflies like they said they would. Expect Joel and Tess to be pretty all over each other but also completely in denial about their relationship.
1. Chapter 1

_"Look - there's the Capitol Building!"_

Eager, hopeful faces turn up in the mid-morning light - has it really been only a day of this madness? Less than twenty four hours ago, he was tending to Tess's bruises and contemplating how many men he has to kill in recompense, and now he's about waist deep in murky water, wading towards the abandoned Capitol building with what could possibly be the cure to this madness...if there're people waiting to meet them.

Heavy, wet shoes slosh uncomfortably up the building stairs, and Joel frowns dubiously up where Tess leads them to the grand doors, glancing at the way Ellie seems both relieved and disappointed at the prospect of leaving them. "You sure there's someone waitin' for us?" he demands from the girl, but really he can't blame her for not knowing when Ellie gives him a hopeful but helpless shrug.

There are no guarantees in their world anymore. Anything goes.

"We'll be fine." Tess's stern reply has Joel turning back to her - only because he doesn't like the way she seems a lot more winded than she should be. Her stubborn face is paler in the light, her cheeks a little more hollow than he remembers, and he wonders when's the last time he saw her eat something in the past twenty four hours.

He reaches for her before he can help himself, grazing the skin of her elbow gently. "Tess, y'alright?" he murmurs, peering into her face with perhaps a little more worry than he'd like to admit. Being separated in that damn building and then finding her nearly mauled to death by that damn runner - Joel isn't sure if he's more upset with himself or at Ellie for being the reason for all this.

Tess nods her head, but Joel wonders if it's a little more like a shake as she brushes him off, grasping the doorknobs instead. "I'm fine, Tex. Just - tired." She spares them both a crooked smile when even Ellie looks up at her guiltily. "Let's get you to the Fireflies, huh kid."

* * *

He doesn't think it's appropriate to point out that he was right all along...but he was right.

There are people waiting for them at the Capitol building, alright - dead people. Each and every one of the so-called Fireflies waiting for them are all lying in pools of their own blood, long dead, by the looks of it. Joel sighs, stepping back as he watches Tess rummage through their pockets for some kind of hint at what the fuck they're supposed to do now.

"What now?" Ellie asks them, and Joel wonders vaguely if Tess will make them keep her with them, or worst yet - make them take her to the Fireflies themselves.

Tess sighs heavily, pulling herself to her feet when her search finds nothing but a Firefly pendant and more blood on her hands. She glances from Ellie to Joel, gnawing the corner of her lip as she weighs in their options. She blows out a breath, gesturing to her partner about as helplessly as she'll allow herself, open-palmed. "Well, we can't just leave her on her own, Joel."

But the man is already shaking his head, waving his hand between them as if he can physically ward off Tess's suggestion. "No, no, no, hell no, Tess - we are _not_ takin' her nowhere else -."

"What other choice do we have?" she counters incredulously, eyes darting sharply to where Ellie's doing her best to make herself invisible in this lovers spat. "Where is this lab they were talking about? Did they tell you?" she demands.

Ellie shakes her head, grasping at her own memories for something that can help them all. "Ah - uh I don't know," she admits, flushing at the way Joel grumbles under his breath. "They just said it was somewhere out West."

"Perfect." Joel scowls, folding his arms stubbornly as Tess begins to round in on him. Cold green eyes bear down on Tess's stubborn hazel eyes; she can see the set of his jaw under all the scruff, and the way he seems to be intent on grinding in what's left of his molars. "I s'pose you wanna take her out all the way out West just for a bunch of guns?"

Tess shrugs a shoulder, arching a brow in challenge at the man. "They're our guns, Joel. I want them back." He growls again, and Tess's brow only goes higher on her forehead. Joel isn't sure if it's infuriating or arousing when she breaks into a crooked smirk. "We were talkin' about laying low for a while, didn't we? What's better than layin' low while visiting family?"

The bearded man's brows pull low on his forehead. "Wha - family?" Joel blinks, hard. "You wanna go find Tommy?" he scoffs incredulously.

"He used to run with these guys, he'll know where to go," Tess insists, and as much of an argument Joel might have when he's stepping into her personal space and opening his mouth, he can't say, because Ellie's frantic alert of more guards has them on high alert again.

He feels Tess breathe a swear, and Joel takes a moment to watch as she's grabbing the girl away from the windows and shoving her towards the back hallway. "What's it gonna be, Tex?" she calls, and he feels her hand slipping over his arm in an iron grip.

Her eyes blaze into his; something unreadable there, as always. "Because I'm not leaving this place without you."

Joel sighs audibly, sparing the woman a mildly irritable look before nudging her forward, covering the back just as the guards try their way for the door. "You're gonna owe me a million backrubs for this," he mumbles, as they're racing each other up the stairs.

Tess laughs quietly, ducking under a broken banister. "I'll make it up to you when we get to Tommy's."

* * *

"Ah, shit."

Joel stumbles down the pipeway, grunting when his knees take to the landing with a little more than just a polite protest, and the man turns to where Tess is landing just off to his side, her hand on his arm - for her support and his. "You alright, old man?" she's asking him, and Joel brushes off her gentle teasing for a nudge in the direction they need to be headed instead - the guards are still on their ass.

"You really think she's gonna fix this mess, huh?" he gusts, as they jog up along the overgrown weeds of what used to be the sidewalk, where Ellie seems mesmerized by the growing flora around them. They get to somewhere familiar - a little broken down garage somewhere downtown, and Joel hauls the broken boards up for them to slip by, Ellie first.

Tess brushes by him, patting his chest with a little breathless kind of smile on her face that's maybe a little more unsure of herself than she's aware. "Can't hurt to try," she says, and then she's off keeping pace with Ellie to keep the girl on track when she looks close to wandering off into a very deep drop off the edge of a broken down highway.

"C'mere, you." She grabs the back of Ellie's backpack, hauling the girl in the direction they need to be, much to Joel's amusement. "We can't have you fallin' head first into a pile of Clickers, now can we?"

Ellie smiles sheepishly, jogging to keep in stride with the pair as Joel and Tess weave in and out of overgrown shrubbery and overturned vehicles. "So where are we going now?" she asks them, as Joel pauses to boost Tess over a scaffolding. She takes a running jump at the woman's proffered hand, grunting with effort as she clambers awkwardly up the side of the building, huffing as she waits and watches with a continuous awe at the way Tess pulls Joel up too.

"Are we going back to Marlene?" she wonders, and watches the way Joel and Tess share a look; the kind she's come to recognize as a 'speaking look' where they talk without needing to say a thing to each other. It's pretty infuriating. She wonders if she should ask them if it's a couple thing.

"Well, a deal's a deal," Tess is saying, even as Joel is sulking while he's scavenging around for extra supplies. "We told Marlene we were gonna take you to the Fireflies, so we're gonna take you to them." Something collapses somewhere off the other side of the room, and Tess is immediately on the source, gun at the ready and voice low and sharp.

Joel emerges, grumbling under his breath, but otherwise unharmed. "'s my bad," he mumbles, and accepts the smack on his arm from a scowling Tess. "Found this though." He produces a bar of chocolate, surprisingly fresh-looking, although Tess continues to eye it dubiously even when Joel shoves it into her hand impatiently. "Y'gonna need to eat somehtin' 'fore you pass out on us, alright?"

Tess huffs, murmuring her thanks as she's breaking the bar three ways, passing the first third to Ellie, who accepts the treat somewhat bashfully, even if she's been eyeing the bar since Joel had produced it. The woman smiles at her from the corner of her mouth, and turns to the Joel with a resolute smirk, holding the second third of the bar impatiently near his face when the man shakes his head at her.

"Open your damn mouth and swallow the thing before I put it somewhere you'd appreciate it less," she threatens him, and with a tortured sigh, Joel snatches the bar from her grip, crunching down on the chocolate and grumbling even as his ears burn at the way Ellie giggles at him.

So he eats his third of the bar, watching closely to be sure that Tess does so too, and once they're all sated for the moment (or at least, now that they're all not jumping at the sound of their own stomachs), they're back out on their way back to the QZ.

"For supplies," Tess says, as Joel's watching her ass climb over the chainlink fence. "And I need to settle some business - make sure everything's nice and dealt with while we're on vacation."

Joel scoffs, clambering up after Ellie. " _Vacation_ , huh? What, you want me to pack somethin' nice for the summer? Bet if you asked nicely, Johnny'd get you a dress," he teases her, and chuckles when Tess elbows him hard. The sound of his low baritone laugh surprises Ellie - she hadn't thought it was possible for the man to even crack a smile, let alone laugh.

It's only for a moment though, and then the man's as serious and surly as he's always been. "Seriously Tess - why the hell are we headin' back when we oughta be startin' west?"

Tess sighs, rolling the tense muscles of her neck as she props her hands on her hips, suddenly painfully aware of the way her body throbs and aches from the god awful things she's put it through. She's starting to feel her age, and she doesn't like it. She blows out a breath. "Well, we sure as hell can't travel across the country with a handful of ammo and barely enough kits to patch ourselves up," she states, glancing pointedly at where Joel's arm still bleeds from beneath the haphazard binding he'd placed there after an unfortunate and sloppy encounter with a stray bullet.

Joel palms the injury somewhat indignantly, but he finds himself sighing in defeat; he never really does say no to Tess anyway. "We stop for one night," he tells her firmly, and Tess nods her assent readily even as Ellie's groaning to herself about returning to the zone. "We just took out a whole damn team of soldiers, Tess; odds are they've got the whole damn place on lockdown 'cause of us."

The woman merely shrugs. "Wouldn't be the first time."


	2. Chapter 2

"So what did you guys do before this? I mean, before you started smuggling stuff for people."

Ellie's clambering over the last of the walls they've had to climb; Joel can see the familiar corner diner they've come from, as above them the sky settles purple and orange in dusk. Their pacing has cost them most of the day already, and Joel can feel the fatigue rolling off Tess's body with his own exhaustion - even Ellie is quieter from the amount of running around they've done.

It will do them good to rest for the night.

Tess sighs, pausing as they gather around the hidden hole on the floor. "We did a lot of things, kid," she murmurs, crouching down beside Joel to help the man ease the large and heavy oak door off the hole just enough for them to squeeze down. "Some things, we're not so proud of."

Joel grunts quietly, hefting the door up for them. "Get along now." His arms tremble under the weight, and it takes a little more effort than usual to keep it level as Tess urges Ellie down into the hole first. The smell of old wood and thick damp tickles his nose and throat, and Joel smothers a cough as he slips down a little clumsily after them.

"You're gonna need your mask on, Tess," he reminds her, already in the process of pulling his own gas mask over his head. He turns to Ellie, eyeing the girl curiously at the way she seems rather unaffected by the fact that they're walking into spores. "You gonna be alright without one, kid?"

Ellie shrugs. "They're already inside me; it's not like it's gonna make a difference if I breathe them in."

The pair share a look, and Joel keeps his opinions to himself as they step through the thick mass of spores.

"Just - don't turn on us, alright? Sooner we get out of here, the better."

* * *

They get back to the apartment with little fanfare; a great relief to the amount of crap they've endured, and Joel doesn't think to look the gift horse in the mouth for this respite as he's stripping his bloodstained shirt and stepping into the bathroom. Tess is sitting outside with Ellie, discussing 'plans' for business with Johnny for when they're away. Let it never be said that Tess isn't a damn smart businesswoman.

This isn't the first time he's wondered what would've happened if things hadn't gone to hell.

He'd been looking for a business partner before it all...crumbled.

A sharp rap at the bathroom door jolts him out of his angst, and Joel hears Tess's muffled voice calling to him. "Hurry up, Tex, I've got a full bladder and I'm not afraid to use it."

"What's it full of if you ain't had nothin' to drink all day," he grumbles, but he's already got the door open for the woman to slip through even as he's finishing his sentence. He shakes his head at the sight of her, sighing when she smirks at him and leans up to kiss him sweetly on the cheek.

Tess pats him on the shoulder gently, smirking crookedly at the man as she backs him against the sink instead. "You're right," she says, and leans in to inspect his newly acquired scrapes instead. "I just needed you to get the door open. Now sit down and let me fix you, old man."

Joel scowls, making a face as she manhandles him down onto the toilet seat. He flinches when his battered back smarts against the cold porcelain, and Tess squeezes his arm apologetically before she's practically pressed against him trying to get at the blooming bruise on his jaw. His hands grip at her hips, keeping the woman steady as she straddles a thigh and begins to tilt his head this way and that to palpate the bruises in the grimy lighting of their bathroom.

"Did ya get all your business done with Johnny or what?" he murmurs, eyeing the woman from the corner of his eye when Tess tilts his head away from her and starts dabbing at the cut just above his jawline. The corner of his mouth twitches at the smarting of alcohol on his skin, but Joel does little else as Tess fusses over his wounds.

The woman hums distractedly, swiping at the diluted blood with her thumb. "Everything's settled; all that's left is for us to disappear for a while," she assures him, and turns her attention to the big and blood-caked flesh wound on his arm. She clucks her tongue at him, shaking her head disapprovingly. "You really need to be careful out there, Joel. I can't always be keeping an eye on for your ass while lookin' out for Ellie too."

Joel chortles; his hands are gripping her hips in something like a massage and he doesn't even realize. "I'm pretty sure you've got that the other way around, sweetheart," he drawls, hissing under his breath when Tess starts to stitch his wound shut. "Where is the kid, anyway?" He tries hard to resist the urge to flex under the bite of the needle, and distracts himself with fingering the seams of Tess's weathered jeans instead.

Tess's mouth twitches, but her eyes are sad and weary as she does away with the last of Joel's open wounds. "Poor thing passed right out on the couch after Johnny left. Can't blame her, after all the shit she's been through." She settles back onto Joel's thigh, observing her handiwork for a moment before pressing a kiss to his frowning lips, out of habit.

"Hey now," Joel growls, a warning in his throat even as he's palming her hips eagerly. "I'm too banged up to be messin' around with you, and you sure as hell ain't in any shape or form to be startin' anything either."

She huffs, pouting as she dismounts his thigh, but really it's just for show because all Tess really wants to do is to sleep for the week and not do a thing. But she cleans up as much as she can without wasting the limited amount of water they get (she's saving it for a hot shower in the morning as one last luxury before they embark on this journey of insanity), and struggles into the shirt she'd stolen from Joel many years ago.

It's her sleep shirt now.

"Quit picking at the stitches or you'll rip them open." She slaps Joel's fingers away as she's slipping into bed beside him, narrowing her eyes at the way he's glaring at her with a scowl on his mouth. The death-stare lasts only a moment though; Tess is cosied up to the man's bare chest almost as soon as he's within range and settled comfortably in bed with her.

She'd gone out to check on Ellie while grabbing Joel a shot of whiskey to dull the pain, and found the girl sprawled on her stomach drooling into the couch covers. Tess had watched the kid for a moment, wondering warily if Ellie will turn while they sleep and kill them in their bed, but also wondering if they'll make it as far as they need to to get this girl to someone who knows what to do with her.

But the girl seems fine, if a little peculiar, and Tess finds that she probably likes it that way.

She sighs when they're settled for the night, but they both know that neither of them are sleeping well tonight.

Tomorrow is the day their world ends.

* * *

"So how are we gonna get to the lab?"

Joel tightens the straps of his freshly stocked backpack, a heavier weight appropriate to their heavier task, grunting quietly as he swings the weighted pack onto his shoulders, and straightens to face the girl. "Any way we can," he tells her shortly, and nudges her aside as he fusses with the rest of the ammo Tess had laid out for them on the kitchen counter.

It's too early in the morning for his liking, and honestly Joel is more surprised that Tess had even agreed to set out so goddamn early - it's common knowledge that Tess is untouchable before dawn. Even he, who rises with the sun and basks on the rooftop most mornings, is surlier than usual in the morning.

As worn and weary as he is, Joel does not revel in the rest of sleep. It is there he is haunted most, hunted most for his memories of blood and fear and loss. In the waking world, his struggles and challenges are simple - survive. Within his dreams, there is no escape. Where does he run from in the place where he keeps the darkest of thoughts, the sweetest of memories and the bitterest of losses?

For the first time in a long time, getting out of bed had been a struggle.

And yet, they stand at the door of their apartment with the sun's light only just starting to peek over the edge of their living room window.

The weathered man smothers a yawn, and wonders if they'll have time for some coffee-flavored water on the run. They get back on the road without as much trouble as Joel expects - it's too early in the morning for lockdown to be in place, so they manage to sneak by the guards on patrol with only very little strangling.

"How the hell are we gonna get to Tommy out West on our feet, Tess?" Joel grumbles, somewhere halfway down an overwhelmed highway heading out of town. The sun's high on their backs, warm and tight as Joel swigs from the thermos of barely distinguishable coffee that Tess passes him.

Tess huffs, sliding between a pair of weed-infested cars. The heat burns, pulling tight on their skin, and Tess feels the crisp bite of the sun branding the pale taut skin of her neck and arms."I'd reckon Bill could help us out with that," she says, and arches a brow when Joel scoffs a little incredulously. "What? That man owes us about as many favors as he does shipments, and I sure as hell ain't lettin' him off that easy."

It's not like she's really going to be giving him a choice, but that's none of Joel's worry for the moment.

"Well what makes you so sure he'll help us?" Joel counters instead, and stops Ellie from stumbling into a pothole. He mutters for her to stick to Tess, to which the woman pulls the girl to her mildly as they move along the pathway; out of sight enough for cover, but with a wide enough berth to keep from stray infected.

"'s far as he's concerned, we could rot out here and he'd not give a fuck."

Ellie tilts her head at them, keeping pace more with Tess than she is Joel because the man has made it clear more than once that Tess is the one who's running the show. To him, she's more of a puppy underfoot at this point. "Who's Bill?" she asks Tess; she takes to the woman maybe out of necessity, but she does like the no-nonsense attitude the woman has with business and guards, and the way she indulges the questions Ellie asks whenever she can.

Questions just like this one.

Tess hums, smirking crookedly from the corner of her mouth at Joel for a moment when the man mutters a none too kind remark about Bill's ass size before regarding the girl beside her. "Bill's one of our suppliers, I guess you could say. We're...friends...ish with him too, but the man can sometimes be a bit of a dick." She casts something like an apologetic smile at Ellie for the language, but the girl simply rolls her eyes mildly.

"So why are we going to find him?" she asks, but Tess isn't allowed time to answer the girl when Joel's suddenly got his hands wrapped around her waist and grumbling things at her.

"Joel, what the hell -?!" Tess yelps, squirming to glare at the man indignantly when he tugs at the hem of her battered pink shirt; the one that's dangerously thin and falling apart at the seams. "The hell are you doing, old man?!"

He sighs at her, tugging again rather pointedly where a decent portion of Tess's waist is exposed beneath the tattered cloth. "Damn it, Tess," he growls, when Tess slaps his hands away defensively. "You're walkin' around practically half naked out in the open like this, you don't think I'd have a problem with that?"

Ellie pauses to watch them, peering curiously at the woman that Joel is fussing over, and frowns when she sees nothing wrong with her attire. It's the same shirt and jeans combination she'd met Tess in, with maybe a little less cloth in certain places.

The girl wrinkles her nose at the man. "She's not half-naked, she's just got holes in her clothes. We all do."

Of course, neither of them have about half of their sides showing off like Tess is, but still. It's not as bad as the man is making it seem.

Joel shakes his head, scowling at the woman's pale skin. "Your damn shirt's fallin' to pieces; how're you s'posed to be shootin' at things and puttin' things in chokeholds when you got more skin on show than half the infecteds do?"

Tess waves his fussing aside, clicking her tongue somewhat irritably at the way the man's still hovering by her, and eases his grip off her waist gently. "Then you do all the strangling and me and Ellie can sit back and watch you, okay?" she snarks at him, and makes a show of covering the exposed part of her waist with her backpack.

"And besides," she adds, rolling her eyes at Ellie when the girl giggles discreetly into her sleeve. "If you're so worried about my modesty, old man, you can always give me your shirt and _you_ can walk around half-naked." Her eyes narrow mischievously at the bearded man, mouth curling into a smirk when his ears burn pink.

Joel makes a sound in his throat, sighing heavily again when Tess eyes him smugly, waving them along as he brushes past the woman. "Just don't let 'em tear you up, alright?" he murmurs, and his fingers brush against the knuckles of the one Tess has propped on her hip.

There's something in the way he says it; the way his touch lingers almost reluctantly on whatever flash of skin he can, and Tess knows immediately that this has very little to do with the amount of skin she's showing. She catches only a glimpse of it in the depths of his green eyes, but it's just enough for her to know - you don't stay partners for as many years like they do without learning the signs on each other's skin.

"Hey." She reaches out this time, a gentle grasp of his wrist enough to still the man, and Tess offers him what she can of a firm smile. "We'll be fine, Tex. We've got this." Her fingers stroke the roughened skin of his wrist, brushing the worn metal of his watch, and then it's gone.

"Come on, kid; we'll go see if Bill has a gun to spare and I'll show you how to shoot."


	3. Chapter 3

They get to Lincoln with a little bit of a problem; they don't see Bill anywhere. Honestly they hadn't expected to - the man is paranoid beyond the level of paranoia Tess thinks is allowed, but there's a strange sense of foreboding that welcomes them into the abandoned city. It's too quiet, too still; too devoid of human noises, and even then, devoid of non-human noises too.

Tess pauses in the middle of the street, eyes sharp and breath tight as she reaches out for Ellie's shoulder. An iron grip makes the girl wince, but Ellie doesn't protest when she sees the intensity with which Tess is scanning their surroundings. She slips back closer beside the woman, like a child finding her way back to Tess's hip from memory, and watches anxiously between the adults as Joel unholsters his gun and Tess reloads hers.

"What is it?" she whispers, but Joel is already nudging her behind them both, slipping an inch ahead of Tess too as they move from the wide open space of the streets down into an alleyway. Ellie watches them with about a thousand questions in her head, but Tess doesn't really give her the chance to voice any of them as she's sandwiched between the pair and ushered into an abandoned backyard of an apartment building.

"Stalkers." Tess's voice cuts sharp and jolting between the three of them, and Joel's brows darken and pull lower over his face as they try to get up onto the back of a truck. There's a stairwell they seem to be aiming for, and something glints from the corner of Ellie's eye.

"Watch it!"

Joel hauls her backwards by her collar, hissing for her to get down. "Bill's got a reputation for makin' tripwires set up like alarms," he tells the stunned girl, and Tess motions for where the thin line of wire leads to a nailbomb attached to the other side of the wall. He reaches back for Ellie, gentles the girl ahead of him, to the surprise of both the women.

"You stay low to the ground," he rumbles, as they're crouched low beneath the wire. "And you keep your ass movin' nice and slow, 'cause I'm sure as hell Bill's got motion traps ready to blow us all to pieces too." He grips her shoulders firmly, and forwards they go.

"Steady now, good girl."

Tess flanks them silently, already much too accustomed to this game of minesweeper death edition to need Joel's guidance, and but even with her body low in a crouch, Tess has her head and shoulders high and her eyes roving like a lion on the guard.

Something snaps in the near distance to her left, and Tess's ears strain to hear the heavy rasping breath they've come to recognize. She shoves at Ellie's butt hurriedly, rushing the girl up onto a nearby semi when the heavy grunting moans begin to come closer. "Joel, get her up there. Get her up there now!"

Joel boosts the girl up in a rush, sloppy and rough, but there's no time to apologize for the way Ellie bangs her chin against the side of the semi when a good handful of stalkers appear in a rush. "Tess!" His thundering boom of her name is only barely loud enough over the kick of her gun as she puts two bullets right between the eyes of a snarling stalker.

The blood and skull fragments spatter onto his boots, and Joel thinks they're getting too close for comfort.

"TESS!" he roars, and the woman is suddenly in his arms and climbing him like an uncoordinated monkey. He gets a mouthful of her jeans and her boot grinding into his shoulder, but Joel pushes the woman up with a burst of strength and a bear-like snarl when he's face to face with a stalker almost as soon as her leg is out of sight.

He gets an uppercut to the jaw, and Joel's world bursts in stars and bells - and Tess's startled scream of his name. With his eyes just barely focused, Joel glances up just in time to see a pair of clawing hands sink into a familiar leg; the leg that had just kneed him in the face climbing him. Expletives explode from his mouth the same way the man leaps into action, and Joel has a stalker's head in his hand before he realizes.

Bone crushes surprisingly easy when you're angry, or it could've been the wall he'd slammed it into, but Joel doesn't think to care much. It's just another stain on his shirt to wash off by the end of the day.

"Joel!" Ellie's shrill wail of his name has the man whirling to them in a breath, and Joel feels the slug like a punch as his heart freefalls into his stomach when he sees Tess dangling desperately off the side of the semi. Ellie's crouching by the edge too, frantically gripping at the woman's clawing hands to keep her up, but there's only so much the girl can do with two of the infecteds snarling at Tess's boots.

He sees one gritty hand sink into the bare flesh of Tess's side - the very same he'd been palming before.

He doesn't realize it until after his head has made a significant dent into the side of the semi, but Joel has vague recollections of his days on the football team in school before he's snapping a stalker's neck and shooting the other in the mouth.

The tips of his fingers tremble as he breathes, but Joel finds the sense to blink the haze of red from his eyes, and focuses once more of the flailing, kicking legs of his partner. The one Ellie has failed to help up.

"Alright, now. I got ya." He eases an arm around Tess's waist, grasping her ass with a large palm as he decides whether or not it'll be easier to boost her back up and help her back down. It's a moment of consideration and contemplation, one that apparently Tess does not appreciate; Joel blinks when she swats him upside the head.

"Quit groping me, old man, and help me down."

Joel flushes indignantly, lowering the woman gently to her feet as he slides both hands up to her waist instead of palming her ass. He gives her a crooked little smirk when Tess is level enough to glare at him. "Hey, couldn't turn down such a fine opportunity if it was starin' me in the face, now could I?" He ducks when she slugs him in the stomach, scowling at him even when he can see the freckles on her cheekbones growing darker.

"Yeah well you touch this 'opportunity' again, and I'll make sure it's the last thing you touch," she mumbles, and crouches down to rip her boot from between the mangled jaws of the stalker whose neck Joel had destroyed. She scowls at the drool coagulating along her sole, and laces the boot rather haphazardly back onto her foot.

She finds a pair of hands on her waist when she's upright, and Tess feels her breath jolt sharply. She scowls over her shoulder, where she can feel and see Joel pressing maybe a little too closer than a partner should, but despite herself she feels her eyelids lower indulgently.

She'll blame it on the adrenaline of nearly getting mauled to death, but Tess finds herself appreciating the heat of his chest a lot more; the way his hands settle large and rough on the skin of her waist.

It's a nice reprieve from the death at their feet.

"You got wax in those ears of yours, Tex?" she breathes, but Joel merely spares her a rumble before he's hefting her up like a cheerleader and has her ass in his hand once more. She rolls her eyes at him, though Ellie's the one that sees, and clambers up onto the semi.

"Whoa," Ellie gasps, when Tess is back on level ground and safe. The girl looks somewhat shaken, but then again Tess can't blame her. She would've been witness to a body being ripped to pieces by a horde of fungus-infected monsters. She reaches out to the woman, and Tess feels the cold and clammy grip of Ellie's fingers like a brand. "You okay?"

She smiles thinly at the girl. "Just peachy, kid. But we need to work on your upper body strength a little bit, huh."

Ellie lets out a weak laugh, but the smile that Tess gives her before hauling Joel up seems to quell some of the girl's anxieties. "Heh, yeah, I guess I'd need to start lifting some weights or somethin', huh?" She tries for an arm flex, although there's not much of a bulge there to see.

It gets a chuckle from the man though; the corner of the woman's mouth twitches, and Tess's eyes sparkle at the girl. "Well I'm sure Joel can make you a pair of weights from a couple of heads he's broken off."

"Probably'd need to fill 'em up with rocks or somethin'," Joel drawls. "Most of 'em ain't got nothin' in their heads anyway. Be like liftin' air."

When they're all safe and walking along a path they know for certain will lead them to Bill, Tess lets her shoulders brush against Joel's, and her lips to his cheek before he can register the fleeting warmth.

* * *

For all intents and purposes, Tess can appreciate the ingenuity of Bill's wacky maze of booby traps. It's a fun way to keep yourself occupied and exercise the mind when there's nothing better to do with your time, but sometimes, Tess wonders if he's just making these things to dick with them.

Especially Joel.

Her heart lurches into her throat when she sees Joel strung up like a snared rabbit, dangling dangerously by his bad leg as the sound of breaking glass and irritable curses rouse the attention of nearby infecteds. "Fuck," she breathes, as the familiar screeches start to come closer. "Ellie!" Her sharp call jolts the girl alert; she grabs at Joel to keep him steady, hissing at the girl. "Get to the fridge - cut it loose!"

"What the fuck is up with this Bill dude?!" Ellie shrieks, already clambering frantically towards the giant metal boulder. "He's gonna get us killed!"

"Just get him down!" Tess snaps back harshly, but it's a little too late when the doors burst open with the always welcome sight of deranged infecteds. There isn't much else Tess can think of but to shoot them all in the head, all the while keep Joel steady as he fumbles for his own gun.

"God damn it," the man groans, glaring at the world upturned as he finds himself face-to-crotch with his partner - shooting where she can't see as Tess returns the favor. He can't think of any other time he's found himself in such a predicament; even with Bill's stupid habit of making newfangled ways of fucking with them, Joel wonders if the fatass isn't somewhere around the corner watching them and having a good ol' laugh.

"Remind me to shoot Bill next time I see him." He growls as he misses a shot, spitting a swear like venom, but really who can shoot upside-fucking down.

Tess breathes a scoff, spinning the man as she punches a snarling infected that comes too close. "Get in line, Tex. I want his balls for this," she mutters darkly, craning her neck towards where Ellie's now on top of the fridge frantically sawing at the ropes. "ELLIE!"

The girl grunts frustratedly, glaring back at the woman; through the horde of beasts clawing at her shoes and the strange way Joel and Tess seem to be doing some weird upside down partner tango with their guns. "I'm trying! These ropes are strung too tight!"

Whatever else Tess has to say to her is lost in the sea of guttural screeches, and Ellie figures there's no difference if she has anything to say or not if they're all dead. "Come on, you stupid fuckin' piece of shit!" She slashes violently at the myriad of ropes, and finally she hears the tense snap of cords, and watches hopefully as Joel is dropped rather painfully onto his back while Tess does her very best to temper the blow to his bones.

She doesn't have much time to celebrate when she hears the harsh clicking sound, and screams before she can realize why.

The Clicker zones into her immediately; screaming back at her almost mockingly as it leaps at the metal fridge, fungi-riddled hands clawing madly at her feet as its brethren circle the barrier between them and the immune girl. It shrieks again, spittle flying, as its gritty nails touch the edges of Ellie's jeans.

Tess looks up away from the swarm closing in on her and Joel just in time to see the flash of red from Ellie's shirt - the dangerous sway of the girl's equilibrium as she teeters on the edge of the fridge with one hand jutting awkwardly. She'd stabbed the Clicker in the eye, and it's taking her with it as it stumbles backwards into the horde.

"ELLIE!" The burst of panic comes from somewhere Tess cannot place, but there's a choice to make between helping her dazed partner to his feet and running to the girl's aid when she smells the rotten mildew. She can't explain what drives her to bolt across the room, gun ever at the ready as she puts down five infecteds before she even reaches the girl.

Tess grabs the girl by the ankle, grunting when Ellie tumbles down onto her unceremoniously. Her eyes rove frantically over the girl's shaking frame for any sign of blood or open wounds, and exhales the burden when she finds none. "Go, go, go!" She shoves at the backpack on the girl's shoulders urgently, bolting right beside her as she fires off another several rounds at the nearing Clicker.

Joel's up on his feet and beating the shit out of straggling infecteds with his bare hands when Ellie barrels into him, and the three of them go tumbling down into a winded mass of limbs. The man grits his teeth when his shoulder jars against the concrete, and he hears the strained heft of Tess's breath as her hands fumble shakily to reload her gun.

A stench of damp mold comes upon them, and Joel wonders as he's reaching over for Tess, if he'll see Sarah where they're going.


	4. Chapter 4

The swing of the machete coming down leaves them flinching at the wet crunch it makes on contact with the infected; Joel untucks Tess from under his embrace when the death cry of infected soon follows. Ellie materializes from the space between them, where Tess had pulled her into the protective barrier of their bodies, peering uncertainly up at the mysterious figure with the machete aimed at everywhere but them.

"Is that -?"

"Bill." Joel helps Tess to her feet, hands brushing over her body discreetly as the woman fumbles for her gun, wiping at the sweat beading around her forehead and neck. He finds no open wounds, perhaps one bruise too many, but it's enough to satisfy his worries when the masked figure gestures at them rather rudely to follow him.

"C'mon now," he urges the girl, nudging Ellie and Tess ahead as the new horde round the corner. "Let's get our asses out of here 'fore we end up bein' trampled to death."

Tess blows out a huff, bolting after the rapidly moving figure. "You heard the man - I've had enough of these assholes for one day." She ducks under the collapsed doorway, reaching back for Ellie's hand as the guttural shrieking behind them multiplies.

They clamber desperately through a narrow steel door, gasping for breath as they catch themselves against a table while Joel struggles to seal the doorway with Bill from the horde of limbs and snarls. Tess finds herself leaning heavily on the edge of the cluttered table, lungs seizing and heart pounding in her ears as she struggles to find her breath. Ellie's still clinging to her side, silent but for her equally heavy breathing.

"Man," the girl breathes, when she finds her breath a second quicker than Tess. "That was close." She squeezes the woman's arm gently when Tess murmurs her agreement, glancing over at the masked man somewhat awkwardly. There's a menacing glare beneath the mask that even she can feel, and Ellie steps that much closer to Tess when Bill comes marching towards her.

"Hey!" The woman is between the girl and larger man in a heartbeat, glaring dangerously up at the glassy eyes of the gasmask until Bill rips it from his face; Ellie sees a man around Joel's age or so, with longer sandy blond hair that sticks a little greasily to his head.

His eyes are gunmetal blue, blazing indignant rage at the woman in front of him now that they're eye to eye, and Tess can smell the sweat and grime from how close he's hovering by her. "You got somethin' to say, Bill, you say it to me." The man in front of her is too busy snarling into her face to notice, but Joel catches the way her hand slips surreptitiously behind her, to where she keeps Ellie hidden behind her back.

Tess's eyes narrow almost protectively. "Either way, you're takin' three steps back before I break your shootin' arm for all that bullshit you just put us through."

Bill's face is curled into an ugly snarl, spittle flying when he begins to fume in Tess's face. "What I put you through?!" he blusters incredulously. "You come into my house, you set off all my traps -." He gestures rudely at the girl behind Tess.

"Who the fuck is this punk and the hell is she doin' here?!"

The girl gripping at the edges of her shirt suddenly pushes past her, glaring back just as belligerently as Bill is at her. "I am none of your goddamn business, and we're here because you owe Joel and Tess some favors, and you can start by respectin' Tess's personal space!" She shoves at the man's chest roughly, huffing heavily as Bill staggers back, bracing herself in front of the woman even as Tess is grasping at her shoulders and pulling her away from the man.

"Why you little -!" the man thunders, but Bill barely manages two steps towards the girl when he's met with the low and dangerous face of Tess's partner - Joel glares at him lowly, voice a low rasp that could either arouse or terrify.

In Bill's case, it's a bit of both.

"You'd best keep your hands to yourself now," the Texan rumbles, and Bill glances just beyond the man's broad shoulder at where Tess seems to be chiding the girl and keeping her in check. Bill's mouth curls into a sneering scowl, but the hard set of Joel's cold gaze is enough to keep him where he stands.

Maybe it's a little bit of the way Joel's arm and hands are clenched tight, waiting for him to even think about getting to Tess and the girl.

Bill snorts. "Whatever," he mutters, and watches petulantly as Tess steps forward. He watches the woman take a heavy breath, and wonders just what they've been through to come find them again. Their shipments aren't due for another two weeks, and he doesn't think he owes them anything enough to incite Tess's wrath.

"I'll cut to the chase," Tess begins curtly, fixing her dark eyes on the man. "We need a car."

The chortle bubbles incredulously in his throat. "Well, this really is a joke. 'Joel and Tess need a car', I owe you some favors -." The snideness in his tone is quick to disappear when Tess is a hair's breadth away from him, with a gun to his jaw.

"Yes." The woman's eyes are cold, her voice cutting. "You do owe us some favors. And I'd suggest you start payin' 'em now, before my finger slips and I shoot your face off, hmm?" She angles the gun again, pressing the still-warm steel harder into the underside of Bill's jaw, smirking wickedly.

Bill sputters, hands already waving in surrender as he leans desperately into the table behind him to keep the gun from his face. "If I had one that works - which I sure as hell don't -, what makes you think I'd just give it to you, huh?" He eyes Tess up and down; a lapsed moment of bravery as he gestures grandly around them.

"Yeah sure, Tess, take my car - take all my food too while you're at it!"

Ellie snorts from somewhere behind Tess. "Yeah, by the looks of it, you could lose some of that food."

Bill lunges for the girl, hand fumbling for his machete. "Now you listen to me, you little shit -." He doesn't get very far before he's down on the ground nursing a bleeding nose. "Augh, goddamn it, Joel!"

Joel scowls down at the man, flexing his hand as he tries to find another excuse to punch Bill again - maybe break his nose or something, but Tess is already at his side, her fingers squeezing at his wrist gently. "Y'alright?" It's murmured from around the corner of his mouth; his eyes glance at her sidelong as he takes in the weary strain of her shoulders and the taut curve of her jaw.

"Just fine." Tess's eyes flash; her head jerks towards the girl. "Keep her busy, will ya? We won't get anywhere with him if she's here raggin' on him."

The man nods shortly, smothering a sigh. "Ellie, c'mere." He gestures for her to follow him to the corner of the room; the only other table he can see. "Get on up here and lemme see if you broke anything."

Vaguely Tess is aware of the insistent denial from the girl at having broken or wounding anything, and the indignant way Ellie fights having to let Joel clean her cuts and scrapes, but most of her energy is focused on crouching by Bill's fallen side and tilting her head at the man. "Are you ready to play nice now?"

Bill growls something under his breath at her, simpering almost immediately after when Tess presses the barrel of the gun to his head lazily. "Alright, alright!" he cries, jerking away from the gun. He snorts at her, wiping accusingly at his bloody nose. "Whatever favors you think I owe ya, it ain't worth that much, alright?"

Tess's eyes shift a moment; a memory unreachable in her gaze that troubles Bill to think about all of the things Joel and Tess had done for him. The woman's mouth curves into an enigmatic half-smile - the type known to terrify people. "Actually, Bill, they are."

The man looks away, not so much in guilt but more of something between denial and shame; the steady and pointed gaze of the woman is unwavering. He sighs quietly, slumping back in defeat. "Well it don't matter because I don't have a car that works."

Tess steps back, helping the man to his feet for a moment, as Joel and Ellie return to her side. "But there is one in this town," she insists.

" _Parts_ ," Bill snaps. "There are _parts_ in this town."

"Meaning that you could fix one up," Joel pipes in, and there's something in his tone that tells Bill that he's not really suggesting that he simply 'could' fix one up.

The blond man sighs for a long moment, chewing the inside of his lip until Tess thinks he's had enough time to deliberate, and cocks her gun. "Alright!" He glares at the woman, sighing in defeat as he unrolls a map across the table. "Alright," he sighs again.

"If we're gonna do this, there's some gear I'm gonna need…." Bill points out the several points across town they need to get to, and despite the fact that Tess is scowling at the back of his head, Bill continues his tirade about 'maybe' being able to get the car running.

He rounds the table, snatching his machete from where it had fallen when Joel had papa bear-d him earlier. "But after this," he says, snatching the machete up, glaring at Tess. "I owe you nothing."

The woman sighs, holstering her gun. "That's just fine by me," she murmurs, urging Ellie away.

"Couple days from now, we'll all be dead anyway," Joel mumbles, flinching when Tess slaps him across the chest; shrugging contritely when the woman hisses at him for it.

"Follow me," Bill orders them. "Whole goddamn town's booby trapped - best stay right on my ass."

Ellie rolls her eyes snidely. "Can't miss it."

Joel nudges the girl. "Knock it off," he chides her, hauling her forward by her arm, but even the man can't help but smile from the corner of his mouth when Tess laughs quietly at the retort.

"He could stand to lose a couple of pounds, couldn't he?" the woman murmurs, and Ellie beams up at the amused little smirk she sees on Tess's mouth. Tess smiles slowly, shoulder brushing the girl's as they move, and even Joel can't help but shake his head indulgently at them.

"Y'all're gonna be the death of me, ain't ya?" he sighs, and starts on a light jog ahead when Bill snaps at them once more to keep up. "C'mon now, 'fore he finds a reason to throw another tantrum."


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright. Whatever supplies you may want or need, I suggest you grab them."

Joel breathes a thanks to the man while Tess nudges the girl forward, snatching a bottle of alcohol off the counter. "Ellie, scout around - see if there's anything we might need."

"Cool," Ellie murmurs, and reaches immediately for a box of bullets she'd seen lying on the booth table the moment they reached the rundown restaurant.

They trail after Bill up stairs, through corridors, endless tunnels of clutter and mess all to his petulant mutterings and jabs at Ellie. It's not difficult to see why Bill is 'one of a kind', as Joel had put it. Tess smothers her own sigh when Bill starts again with the girl; " _we_? you know how to fix a -."

"Alright, knock it off, you two," she snaps finally, glaring sharply at Bill when the man turns to her.

His mouth curls, although he's too afraid of Tess to attempt a proper sneer. "It's like I said - what I need is on the other side of town. Now, that side I don't ever go to 'cause it's filled with infected. So we're gonna need more guns -."

Joel shushes them suddenly, stepping in front of Tess and Ellie as they strain to hear the muffled snarls and creaking metal. "There's one inside."

Tess reaches for her gun, but - "oh. I've been meaning to take care of that." Bill waves them away almost sheepishly. "Relax, it's nothin'." They round a corner into a dimly lit room, and Bill reaches for his machete; there's an infected stuck between some kind of guillotine-like trap, flailing and snarling, for how long, they don't know.

"So -." Bill grunts as the machete connects with the infected's neck, lodges there a second. "What the hell are you two doing smuggling the kid anyway?" He bears down again, and the head falls to the ground with a wet thud, blood spurts and touches the cuffs of his pants.

"Just a job, Bill." Tess seems to make a pointed effort of shoving Ellie away from the sight. "Don't step in it," she warns, and the girl wrinkles her nose.

"Alright, here we go." Bill pulls a door open, heavy and grinding rust into the air, but they make it out to sunlight. Tess takes a heavy breath, inhaling the fresh burst of air into her lungs as Joel busies himself with scavenging things from the abandoned cars before them; little things like bullets and strange little notes left behind.

"So...why don't you just fix one of these cars?"

"Oh my god, you're a genius. I mean the whole time, why on earth hadn't I thought about fixin' one of _these_ cars?"

Joel groans quietly, and Tess gives him something akin to a small chuckle as their shoulders brush. "I'm gonna kill one of 'em, I swear to God," he mutters, but there's no time to think about how when they hear the ever familiar rush of thundering feet and nearly inhuman screeches.

"INFECTED!"

Vaguely somewhere in the back of his mind, Joel thinks they should speak to the kid about screaming the obvious at them - it does them no favors when Ellie's screeching attracts more Infecteds their way, but Joel is a little busy with aiming and shooting and punching any that come to close. He's back to back with Tess, a familiar position on jobs; he can hear Tess muttering under her breath, swearing and cursing things as she's double-tapping and kicking and essentially guarding his ass.

Ellie's somewhere by a car, crouched low to keep the attention away from her, although the teen tries her best to help with the occasional brick. It helps them disorient the mindless creatures, throws them off course when either Joel or Tess are too distracted with guarding each other's asses, although eventually Tess grabs for the back of Ellie's shirt and shoves her towards Bill.

"Go with him!" she barks, and takes a fist to the face from a wailing infected. Ellie glances back just in time to see Joel snarling at Tess' assailant, bashes its skull in with his bare hands.

It makes the girl shudder. She's not quite sure which one she's more afraid of.

Bill and Ellie rush across the street as Joel and Tess eliminate the last of the horde, and Bill's got the lock of a rusted gate open by the time the two are catching up to them, winded. "You picked a hell of a place to hole up, y'know that," Joel grumbles, glaring at the other man.

Bill chuckles darkly. "Y'know, as bad as those things are, at least they're predictable. It's the normal people that scare me."

"Does he count as normal?" Ellie whispers at Tess, who nudges the girl's shoulder and pushes her ahead when Bill turns to scowl at them.

"All this effort for some kid," Bill's muttering, shoving the gate wide for them. "You're better off dead."

"Just shut the hell up and get us where we need to be," Tess snaps, shoving the man forward impatiently.

The church is overlooking the town, faded and wilting against a watercolor backdrop of the slow blaze of the sunset consuming a placid blue and purple sky. Tess doesn't have long to appreciate it, but she's surprised when she sees Joel take a long, thoughtful look at the horizon. Before long, Bill shoulders his way between them, jerking his head towards the cellar.

"You." Bill points an accusing finger at Ellie. "Don't touch." He points his finger at Joel and Tess. "You two - get inside and shut the damn door, will ya?"

Tess shakes her head as Joel obediently pulls the doors shut behind him, laying a hand on Ellie's shoulder as she passes the girl. One eye on Bill's back, she gives Ellie a conspiring wink, jerking her head at the pile of magazines in the corner of the room. The way it makes the girl's face light up almost makes Tess want to laugh.

Bill takes every moment possible to bitch at them about their suicide mission, and Ellie takes about equal pleasure in constantly being a pain in the man's ass. Tess likes the kid; she's got spunk, and if she's making Bill's life just a little bit more miserable, well - that's extra reason to like the kid. Joel watches them wordlessly, occasionally sighing and shaking his head, casting looks at Tess as if holding her solely responsible for the fact that Ellie's nearly gotten her face sliced off by Bill at least twice since they got here.

"Alright, let's gear up."

Ellie makes an immediate beeline for the table of guns laid out, but Joel's arm lashes out and holds her in place when she grabs one.

"Hey!"

Ellie jumps when a large, callous-roughened hand materializes by her side, snatching the handgun out of her grip. She blinks up at the man, gaping indignantly. "I need a gun, Joel," she insists, but the man scowls at her instead, tucking the gun firmly into his belt loop.

"No, you don't," the man replies, folding his arms as the girl throws hers up in frustration. He frowns at her sternly, hoping perhaps that she will take the low pull of his brow to be more annoyance than concern or uncertainty. "We talked about this; you ain't gettin' no gun."

The girl scoffs incredulously, nearly pouting at the man. "But - Tess said I could get one!" She gestures pointedly at the 9mm on his hip, _and_ the revolver, _and_ the bow and arrow slung around his shoulder. "I can handle myself, okay? It's just a handgun!"

"No." Joel glares down at the girl, daring her to defy him again, and Ellie seems up to the challenge when Tess appears just beside him, hip brushing his as she reaches around his waist and untucks one of the shivs from his pocket.

She smirks fondly at the girl amidst Joel's eye rolling, slipping the shiv into Ellie's hands. "Maybe next time, okay, kid?" she soothes the girl, when Ellie's shoulders slump disappointedly. Tess is almost sympathetic to the girl's plight, but she smiles again at the girl, leaning slightly into the man's shoulder as he grumbles at her under his breath.

"Y'oughta quit puttin' ideas in her head about gettin' guns," he reproaches her, to which Tess simply shrugs a shoulder, slipping a box of ammo into his hand as she turns to him. He grips the box, and her wrist as well, halting the woman in her step as she leans to step away from him. "Hey."

Tess's eyes flash up to his, surprise and perhaps a certain kind of fear there - not so much fear, as more of...something like apprehension. A kind of wall he sees there most of the time, but sometimes not. His thumb brushes along her pulse; he feels it jolt, and he frowns mildly at her.

"You sure about this?" he asks her, a whisper she almost feels more than she hears, because Ellie's rummaging through things and Bill's nagging after the girl to keep her grimy hands off his things. His eyes navigate the planes of her face readily, from memory and experience, and he watches the pull and curve of her brows and eyes and mouth as she frowns at him first, and then smiles at him in that way of hers that bewilders him always.

"We'll be fine," she promises him, and he watches the way her eyes flit to the corner of her eye - watching for prying eyes - before she presses a kiss to his mouth. It's barely there a second; he almost thinks he's imagined it, but he knows by the tingle of breath shared she leaves behind, before she's turned away from him and chasing after Ellie.

"Ellie, put the pipe down - we need him alive."

" _So help me, Tess, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd gone away and had this kid with Joel just to fuck around with me_."

He can't understand quite why just yet, but Joel feels a strange tingle in the tips of his fingers, and a clot in his chest, at the thought of the girl and Tess as his. There isn't much time to think about things, and so he doesn't; these are thoughts for another time. Right now, there are infected to kill and Clickers to avoid, and Bill and Ellie are reaching volumes he doesn't quite appreciate, and he's sure the infected won't either.

"Hey now," he shoves Bill ahead, glaring hard at the man as Tess pulls Ellie back by the collar of her shirt, slapping the girl's hand away when she reaches for the gun tucked into Tess's jeans. "Y'ain't doin' us any favors pickin' fights with kids." He casts a pointed glare Ellie's way too. "You sure as hell ain't helpin' either."

Ellie gives them a surprisingly petulant huff and wrinkles her nose, but Tess fidgets impatiently, and they're back on track, dodging tripwires and luring Clickers into them with skillfully tossed bricks or bottles, and Ellie is always so eager to show Tess all the arrows she collects along the way.

"I gotta have _something_ to kill things with," she shrugs, narrowing her eyes at Joel, but the man merely grunts at her, and shoves a pair of arrows her way. There's always something underlying in the way the man moves, acts, speaks - the haunted glaze of his eyes hardened into something bitter and cold but still so painfully fragile. She sees it, seems to recognize it in her own way, but Ellie doesn't think it's her place.

Not yet.

The journey across town to the school is a delicate one to make, but outside of a few bumps and scrapes, they make it there in one piece. There is a little scare with Joel and a Clicker, but Tess deals with it in the only way she knows how - by double tapping.

"You've really gotta stop puttin' yourself in those situations, Texas," she huffs, slamming the window shut behind him as Bill hauls the man into the room. She winces sympathetically when Joel tumbles unceremoniously on the ground, jarring his chin as he goes, shaking her head as he rights himself in the next instant.

"Next time run faster then," he grumbles, rubbing at his jaw. "So I don't gotta herd y'all." He shoves a shelf against the door, leaning his weight against it as he shouts at Bill impatiently. "Bill, make it fast!"

Ellie throws her weight into the shelving too, grunting against the snarling, pounding mass of claws reaching through the doors at them. Tess moves around the car quickly, pushing at the truck bonnet with Bill. She grabs a crowbar and jams it between the narrow space, straining to put all of her weight on the thing.

"Please tell me you're done!" Joel shouts, just as the bonnet gives, and Bill leans into the truck eagerly.

Tess peers in too, only to feel the colour drain from her face. "It's empty!"

"What?!"

"It's fucking empty!" Bill steps back, staring at the truck in disbelief.

"Guys!" Ellie sputters, scrambling to keep her feet planted on the ground. Her shoes scuff against the ground as she's jostled against the shelf, and Tess reaches out to help her brace the shelf.

Joel turns to the other man. "Bill, where to?" he demands.

"Uh -"

"Where?!" he snarls, and Bill snaps back into himself, mouth moving wordlessly for a moment before he stutters out - _a-anywhere but here_!

Joel reaches back, grabs Ellie and Tess by the arms, hauling them away from the shelf. "Get ready to haul ass. C'mon!"

They bustle down the hallway with the sounds of guttural snarls and cries echoing through the barren pathway. It's a dangerous move through the dark; Tess presses one clammy hand over Ellie's mouth and pulls the girl down into a low crouch behind overturned desks and shelves as Joel creeps through the patrolling Clickers and infected. Bill's no real help either, but Joel doesn't need much with adrenaline pumping in his veins and shivs in his grip.

"There!" Bill hisses, pointing at a pair of doors. "Get through there!"

Between the four of them, they shoulder the doors open, squeezing through against the massive rolls of vinyl floor mats. Tess yanks Ellie through the doors just as Joel heaves the rack against the door, growling with effort. "That's not gonna hold 'em for long," Tess says, gulping down a breath.

They all jump at the grating sound of metal erupting from the far end of the gym. Ellie's nails bite down into Tess's arm, and Joel reaches for his shotgun warily. "That don't sound good."


	6. Chapter 6

What comes through the doors can only be described as a beast of legend. It moves with a body bloated with spores, sluggish and grotesque with plates of the fungus overtaking most of its skin. What's left of its human form is pallid and green, like a decayed body reanimated, when Tess forces down a shudder when it makes a bubbling, guttural snarl.

"What the fuck is that?" Ellie yelps, and Tess watches it yank something off its own shoulder. Her own eyes go wide, trembling hands shoving the teen aside as a glowing yellow ball comes flying their way.

The ball of spores explodes just off to the side of them, and Tess throws her body over Ellie's, lungs seizing at the putrid, moldy smell.

"It's a goddamn Bloater!" Bill shouts, reloading his shotgun. Tess has her 9mm aimed at the walking monster, squeezing off as many shots as she can aim, all while shoving Ellie out of the way.

Joel's aiming his shotgun too, making a quick perimeter around the snarling Bloater as it staggered towards them, yanking out more spores to throw. His lungs are burning from the spores too; God knows what it's already doing to his body, to their bodies, but he reckons that if he's still got control of his own body, it's good enough. He fires a round into the Bloater's head, breaking off a piece of its fungal plate, but all it does is make an enraged howl.

He reloads frantically, making a wild dash for where Tess is aiming her gun again. "Get the kid up there!" He points to the bleachers, ducking again when another ball of spores comes flying.

"There's no time!" There are more infected coming through the broken windows, snarling and howling; slobbering mouths open and seeking meat to bite down on. Tess aims over his shoulder at two, flinching at the spray of brains and blood. "Just help Bill and aim for its head, I'll cover!" She nudges Ellie down behind a barricade, shoving a handful of arrows and a bow at the girl before she makes a run for it.

The clamor of gunfire echoes like a thunderstorm throughout the gym as all three lay lead into the impossible creature. The heavy caliber of Joel and Bill's slugs barely slow it down; Tess's bullets and Ellie's arrows even less so, in fact all it seems to do is make the damn thing angrier. The Bloater barely twitches when Joel manages to rip a bloody hole at the base of its engorged head.

"Ain't workin'!" Bill hollers over the din, motioning to Joel. "We need to torch the bastard!"

Joel nods, gauging the distance between him and the creature before sinking to a knee and whipping off his pack. His hands shake, furiously stuffing a torn piece of cloth into a glass bottle of disinfectant as the monster roars across the gym. Bill's bullets are running low, he knows; Ellie and Tess have resorted to throwing anything and everything they can find at the Bloater, and it's a dusty old brick that smashes against the front of its head that makes it roar the angriest.

"Tess!" he roars, yanking the lighter out of his pocket. The woman's already putting herself in front of Ellie, shouting something at the girl and pushing her out of the way. The Bloater's gigantic arms go swinging as it zeroes in on Tess, the ground shaking as it thunders toward her with terrifying purpose.

He watches it almost in slow motion; the cold fear growing in Tess's eyes, wide and dark on her face, the horror as she backs into the corner of the room.

He doesn't even think. He just throws the damn thing.

Glass shatters and the world goes up in flames.

The Bloater screeches, flailing wildly as the flames engulf its crackling, sizzling skin, devouring the fungus growing over its body and charring it black in its wake. Its fat fingers claw at its own back and skin desperately, spinning around like a drunkard, its protective plates burning to a crisp. Its engorged limbs reach out, clawing and slashing, grasping at air as it bellows in pain.

Tess curls in on herself instinctively as the Bloater makes a final heave in her direction. One leg collapses beneath it, then the other, and Tess lets out a scream like an injured animal, wild and terrified and utterly defenseless. The creature makes one last swipe at her, crumpling her figure down onto the ground before it crashes to the floor, a deafening impact of spores and burning flesh.

Joel doesn't realize he's holding his breath until he's suddenly gasping for it. The stench of the infected's blackened corpse overwhelms the room as they remain frozen, waiting for the thing to stir back to life.

It doesn't move.

His eyes strain through the fluttering spores in the air, watching the body, his hands trembling at his sides as he waits for Tess to move from where she's lying curled and prone on the floor; to roll up with a grunt and a curse. His eyes go to Bill, then Ellie. They're all doing the same.

He swallows the growing lump in his throat, chokes down the bile as he croaks out her name carefully. "Tessa?"

There's a beat - a breath that catches in his throat, and he feels the thud of his own heart in his ears before finally, finally, she moves. She pushes herself shakily upright, panting hard as she staggers to her feet, clutching her arm awkwardly as she lets out a low, pained sound.

He's moving before he registers it; reaches for her with her name on his lips and fear in his eyes as she grips her arm tight to her chest. "Lemme see, lemme see -"

"'m fine," she mumbles, breathlessly, sucking in deep, gulping breaths. She almost rocks on her feet, eyes wide and wild as they dart around the room, flinching back from Joel when he reaches to lay a hand over her arm. Sweat sticks her hair against the pale skin of her neck, and Joel reaches to push it back off her neck and shoulders as he murmurs to her quietly.

"Joel, we've gotta move!" Bill snaps at him, and Joel jerks his head once, wrapping an arm tight over her shoulders.

They get up onto the bleachers with some struggle; Tess can't use both her arms, so Joel boosts her from below while Bill hauls her up, and they're running outside in the open down the alleyway. Ellie's glued herself to Tess's side, one hand clasped over Tess's uninjured wrist as they run, nudging her up the ladder as Joel beats away stray Runners.

"Get in the house!"

They stumble into the darkened kitchen, Tess gripping the edge of the table hard as she pants, the tendons in her neck showing clear as she works her jaw to steady herself. Joel's pacing around the small space, shooting Ellie a hard look.

"Let's sit down," Ellie urges her gently, unslinging her backpack. "I've got some stuff for that."

Tess presses her lips together, casting a look at Joel, at the frantic way Bill's muttering to himself and peering out of the sliding doors again. A look passes between her and Joel - handle this. She wants so badly to get in Bill's face about this monumental fuck-up in their plans, but there are parts of her unwilling to cooperate. Her hands still shake, her body still trembles; Tess doesn't like fire all that much. She doesn't like the idea of dying to those brain dead fuckers outside even more.

With a growing blaze in his eyes, Joel presses his lips equally tightly and jerks his head to the other man. " _Bill_."

Bill shakes his head. "Somebody had the same idea. They stole my shit." It almost sounds placating; he can see the way Joel's pacing the kitchen, the tautness of the way his shoulders hold near his ears and the coil of his hands into fists.

"So what the hell is Plan B?" Joel demands, moving back and forth still - back, forth, back, forth. Gets something other than rage building behind his eyes at the memory of Tess crumpling to the ground, the true horror and fear in her scream. Tess has never been a screamer - not anywhere outside of the bedroom, and to have heard it with his own ears, to have seen the petrified realization of her own mortality on her face, it was all too much. As it is, he can only stand to feel more rage building up inside him as the muffled sounds of Ellie's soft voice filters in from the other room.

"That was plan A, B, C, all the way through Z!" Bill blusters, jabbing an accusing finger at Joel. "You oughta be thankful you're still drawing breath!" His eyes dart to the hallway, jabbing his finger even more violently in that direction. "And you can tell Tess -"

Joel's eyes blaze wide and vicious, his lips curling back into a snarl as he zeroes in on Bill. "Don't you bring Tess into this!"

"She can shove this job right up her -"

"Joel!"

He reels back, whirling to the doorway where Tess is standing. The pale, haunted look on her face makes a shiver run down his spine as her wide eyes look at something just behind him. He spins around -

"Jesus -"

The body dangles, the rope necklace tight - it's been here a while. Joel is the only one to draw closer, investigatory and suspicious, and it hangs like a macabre Christmas ornament as the sunlight finds its way through cracks in the boarded-up windows. Bill is stock still, rooted to the floor, barely breathing. Ellie's face is struck through with horror, and she edges a little behind Tess, jolts when she feels the older woman's hand close gently around her wrist.

"What - you know this guy or somethin'?"

"Frank," Bill says, his voice quieter.

"Who the hell's Frank?"

"He was my partner," Bill replies.

A pin could drop, they'd hear it clear as day. Joel has to look away from the corpse. _Partner_? and in his head he sees Tess dangling from the ceiling of their apartment, a well-tied noose locked around her neck - he feels bile rise in his throat and clamps a hand over his mouth.

"He was the only idiot that would wear a shirt like that." Bill tells them.

He cuts down the body, and it falls with a stomach-turning clunk onto the wood floors of the living room.

"He's got bites," the man observes. "Here, and here."

"I - reckon he didn't - wanna turn," Joel manages.

"Yeah. Guess not." A shuttered look crosses Bill's face, a steely glare settling in place of the shock and raw grief that had been there before. "Well - fuck him."

Behind them, Tess grips the doorway for support.

* * *

Tess thinks that if it was only a couple years after the infection broke out, when things were falling apart permanently and they wasted time identifying and burying the bodies before mass graves started filling and people ran away instead of retrieving the dead, Joel would have been the one she needed - just in case - because he was the only one who knew the important things about her. As a rule they don't discuss the past, but he knows the vitals. Full name, date of birth, place of birth, favorite type of chocolate, how she takes her coffee. If she was going to go down to this thing it would either be by her own hand, or that of her partner.

She will _never_ let herself turn into one of those things. She's seen them.

There is no humanity left there.

The house is faded, the cabinets that hang off the hinges like half-unfurled wings. Chipped blue paint and a dirty countertop, but - recently in use. It smells - decay. There must be bodies here; it's unsettling. She drifts close to Joel, because there is a heaviness in this house, a humidity that permeates the walls that have creaked and settled and swelled with rain and age. Ellie stays close to them, too, and Tess notes with a hint of respect that although the girl is shaken, she's still on her guard. Tess wants to nod her head and touch Ellie's shoulder, tell her that's absolutely right (and although there's no way in hell that she'd ever corrupt a kid into her business, Ellie would make an excellent recruit - small and quick and alert).

Seeing Frank hanging in the middle of the house had shaken her. Even as they're rushing outside to where Ellie had found the truck, she feels the world tilting under her feet, the headrush of smothered anxiety roiling in her chest and in her head.

"Hey, Joel?" Shoulders brush; the cut of her skin seems to dig even through his shirt.

He glances at her, slows to move in tandem with her. "What's up, Tess?" He peers into her face, notes the way her eyes aren't quite sure if they want to meet his; the way her teeth worries the corner of her lip, the shaken flash of her eyes not quite level.

"Um - about Frank in there," Tess almost shudders, but Joel can't be quite sure. " I - if I ever get bit -."

"Tess. C'mon now. We've talked about this."

" _What if_ , Joel," she presses, gesturing blindly at the space around them. "We're out in the open now - chances of one of us gettin' cocky and screwin' up are higher. I just wanted to say -."

He shakes his head almost aggressively. "Nothin's gonna happen to us, okay?" He stops, turning to her with his brows pulled low and his mouth pressed into a serious line. "Not to you, or me, or Ellie. We'll be fine." His face softens then, almost guiltily, and Tess feels the brush of his fingertips gliding over the length of her injured arm; light and whispering. "We are survivors, ain't we? Once we get to Tommy's, we can take a break. Relax, like you wanted to."

She chews her lip, looks away with a troubled sigh. "Yeah...guess so."

The quiet acquiescence has Joel's brows furrowing again, and he reaches to touch her elbow gently. "Hey. Y'sure you're alright?" He peers into her face worriedly. "You've been kinda...off lately."

Tess shakes her head, brushing off his touch with a wan smirk. "'m just tired, Tex. 's been a long day."

Understatement of the century. He puffs out a little breath, almost an incredulous chuckle. "Yeah, don't I know it."

He thought of it too. At the word _partners_ , implying connection and trust, history, respect - thought first of Tess doing that to herself to keep herself from losing autonomy, it's something Tess would do, and then utter confusion. What the _hell_ would he do without her? What would he be?

Joel sees himself bitter and soulless, a broken half - but he's been through tragedy before, knows that you can pretend to come out the other side even if it never leaves you.

She would never leave him. Merely join the ghosts in his head.

"Don't worry," Tess mutters, almost as if to herself. She squeezes his hand once, draws ahead of him a little in the brush. "Partners, Joel." She lets go, and he watches the dark-brown-red of her hair in the sunlight.

His eyes go to the slender figure being kicked out of the front seat and standing by Tess. Her eyes dart to him briefly, and Ellie gives him a small smile. Joel smothers a sigh, moving to the truck. She's been a good kid so far, he figures it wouldn't be fair not to acknowledge that. For all the shit they've been through in the past few days, the kid's got a pretty steady head on her shoulders. He hasn't missed the way Tess has connected with her - the way Ellie gravitates willingly to the woman, even without his constant grumpiness in the way.

A fragment of something loosens in his chest, and Joel presses his lips together as Bill slides out of the front seat. "Battery's drained by the cells are alive."

"Meaning?" Joel presses.

Bill rolls his eyes irritably. " _Meaning_ we push it. get it started, and the alternator'll recharge the battery."

"'s that your guess?" Joel shoots back dubiously, but Tess cuts in before Bill can bite back a retort.

"Can we please just get the hell out of here?" she demands, glancing between the men sharply. "Ellie, get in the car - you drive and we'll push."

Bill lets out an incredulous snort. "Yeah, you and that one arm of yours," he retorts, jerking his chin at the gauze around Tess's arm. "You're no good to us out here. Get in there and make sure someone actually knows how to drive this damn thing." He grunts at Ellie's indignant cries from inside the cab, curling his lip as he braces against the truck expectantly.

Joel leans his head down to Tess, murmuring quietly. "He's got a point." He pulls open the cab door for her - "Ellie, scooch over."

"I can drive, y'know," the teen grumbles, but Tess gives her an understanding pat on the shoulder as she begrudgingly climbs into the truck. To Ellie's surprise, Tess just climbs over her, nudging her back into the driver's seat.

"Don't make me regret it," Tess says, giving her a crooked little grin.

Bill bangs on the bed of the truck impatiently, calling out through at Joel irritably. "Alright, get over here, cowboy, and put those muscles to good use!"

By some great miracle, they end up getting the truck running again, and Tess remembers the adrenaline rush of being in a fast car, even if it's only for a little while. Granted, there are mindless, screeching infected in the rearview mirror, but at the very least they're headed in the opposite direction. Joel and Bill hop into the bed of the truck, and Tess meets Joel's eyes as he looks at them through the rear window.

"Gas it, Ellie," she tells the girl, and the truck surges forward with a roar from the engine.

Eventually they get down a street devoid of infected, heading to the direction they need to be in. "Alright, this'll do!" Bill shouts, pounding on the side of the truck. They roll to a hard stop, the aged gears and cogs whining in protest as Ellie gives Tess a small sheepish grin.

Joel looks at them through the rear window, making to follow Bill. "Just keep it runnin', alright?" Ellie gives him a thumbs up, and Tess leans out over the girl to peer at them through the driver's side window.

"That girl nearly got us killed," Bill grunts, clambering over the side of the truck. It's hardly anything graceful, especially compared to the way Joel seamlessly hops off.

"You gotta admit," he says, bobbing his head approvingly, much to Bill's annoyance. "She did hold her own back there."

Bill wheezes out a laugh, shaking his head at the man. "You ain't gonna make it." He bends to a knee and rifles through his pack, tossing a roll of piping into Joel's chest. "Here. You'd be amazed at how many cars still got gas in 'em."

Joel looks down at the roll of piping in his hand, squeezing it gently in his grip, twisting to feel the aged rubber against his palms. "'Preciate it," he murmurs, giving Bill a quiet look. "Look. Bill, um, about your buddy back there -" he shakes his head, curling his lips inward to bite down on them. "That's...that's a tough deal. And I'm ah…." Joel looks away almost guiltily; glances back to the truck where Tess is resting her chin on an arm on the window, patiently letting Ellie untangle the strands of hair caught in her bandana.

Bill's eyes glaze over, pensive and guarded, hedged with a lifetime of sadness there as he nods his head. His eyes move over the horizon, over the truck and the girls inside it, back to the man in front of him. "We square?"

Joel looks down at his hands. "We're square."

"Then get the fuck out of my town." The steel in his words and eyes are back - Bill glowers at Joel impatiently, curling his lip at Tess. "And don't forget when you die out there - I told you so!"

"Thanks, Bill," Tess calls out, giving him a dry salute. "Always a pleasure."


End file.
